Category Archives: space marine

Well, I had decided on undertaking The Aurora Chapter as my army. The colour was nice, the rules were simple for a newbie, that is I didn’t have to go and get Codex Space Wolves or Angels of Death.

I then headed out to expand my abilities for the army, in the form of Dark Milennium. This add on was a box that had all sorts of cool wargear cards and as I was taking a dreaded Librarian, my opponent was done. He had planned on using the Orks and there was no way to stop me with my new, cool wargear. I also had another secret weapon; an Eversor Assassin, which would absolutely decimate my opponent’s Orks.

Little did I know he actually had been scheming to build a brand new army, one that I didn’t know much about and that were the TYRANIDS! Well that begun the famous war between The Aurora Chapter and Tyranids. Over time as the armies developed and new editions were released, both of us have “evolved” our lists to combat each other better and better. The Aurora have started taking much more bolter weaponry, both in the form of heavy bolters, and storm bolters. I started toying with a Whirlwind, and a Land raider Crusader. Now I even though I havent played against Steve in a long time (I moved overseas) I have now taken a Thunderfire Cannon, simply since my mindset is heavy firepower in the form of making my opponent take armour save, after armour save and whittle him down with the saves he fails. A sheer amount of firepower is the key.

Now The Aurora Chapter’s third company is almost completely painted. The most recent tidbit of information about the Chapter had mentioned that they take a large contingency of Predators,(news to me) there should be some more rolling out from the Manufatorums on Mars, also I just have to paint up one or two more tactical squads and also, with a Thunderhawk slowly, and i mean slowly being done, an Apocalypse game is in the works, we will just see when we can get that organised.

It is really interesting to see just how the Tyranids have evolved with the latest edition being a shootier game and it’s all about scoring units, time will tell.

Hi there folks. I has been a crazy month or so. Vacation has been taken and the studio has been inundated with lots of requests for commissions. Keep your eyes on the blog for lots of models from different games, such as Descent, Malifaux and even some Fortune and Glory. All these commissions will give the studio an opportunity to expand the miniature repertoire and this is very exciting

One commission that has just been finished are a unit of Black Templar Sternguard. These models are an absolute joy to assemble and paint. The sheer number of options are just so exciting. The potential here for conversion is just so palpable and any bits left over will most definitely find their way into many other conversions.

So as they say; without further ado, here is the latest unit to come of the Seismic Studio painting table; a unit of 10 Black Templar Sternguard…

These models from the beginning, were a joy to assemble, and paint. At times were a little overwhelming with just the sheer number of options available on the sprue. There are many, many bits left over to use for a squad or two. It seems like finally GW are really listening to their customer base. This is something I want to explore in another post, for the time being back to the Sternguard.

When I was painting the models some things came to mind that I wanted to showcase.

With the unit being of such an elite status, I really wanted to show them being veterans with their helmets looking really different from that of crusader squads The tactical squad equivalent in a Space Marine army. I felt that when you look at them next to each other on the battlefield, there should be a vast distinction between the regular squads and the veterans.

Another way was to paint the black armour in a slightly different way. I wanted to keep it as similar to the crusader squad that I had previously painted for my client, but during the process I made a fatal error, one that basically erased my work on the armour up to that point. I wanted to make it as rich in colour as possible, so what did I do? i gave the armour a black glaze. This wiped out hours of my painting time and brought the black armour to a point at which I couldn’t really discern what I had done. What did I do I hear you ask? I started to blend on the armour. Now this would be a really silly idea if I was painting a regular unit and it would be even sillier if I didn’t have my saving grace; my wet pallet. This allowed me to keep my paints nice and moist, while I worked my colours on the models. In the end I am really happy with the outcome.

The last way that I was able to have them stand out was through no accomplishment of my own. They have all been given beautifully sculpted robes, that are just perfect for Templars and they all have ornate boltguns and shoulder pads. By painting the Crux Terminatus and the robes in their own distinct style, I could keep the pallet for the unit to be black, white and bone. This is especially effective in tying them to the remainder of the army, yet keeping them looking like they had been through years of campagns.

At the end of the day, I am super happy with the result of the models and will be ready to paint up my own unit of Sternguard for The Aurora Chapter very soon…

It’s time to CELEBRATE! Seismic Miniature Painting Studio has made it’s first official sale.

There’s been a little more playing of the new 40k (6th edition) and my opponent caught wind that I had a Black Templar Crusader Squad (essentially it’s a Tactical squad that you can add 10 Neophytes-scouts- to) that I had intended on selling at some point down the road. I had actually painted them up back in the Templar 5th edition days and the models had just been sitting on a shelf so it was perfect that they do something useful and be SOLD!

Together with some freehand banner work, parchment writing and chapter symbols, I am happy to say that they turned out extremely well.

My client even asked that I match up the base of his existing Emperor’s Champion to the unit; they look fantastic together. It’s amazing just what a cohesive base can do for a unit that was painted by two different people, and given that the unit and the Emperor’s Champion are both black; it helps.

What is perfect is that since he is a regular opponent of mine, I will get to see them whenever I play a game of 40k against him.

Next for my opponent are some of the new plastic sternguard veteran models, the question is: five or ten man unit? Hmmm…

So I was introduced to this amazing new hobby, this brand new world that was to me, as cool as Star Wars. This is a world that has such a rich background that it was almost like an overload to my science- fiction senses. I had to do it, I went out and purchased my own copy of Warhammer 40k second edition:

This box set not only had great models, intricate and interesting rules, but most interesting to me at the time was the background to the genesis of a space marine and the history of just how the Emperor was betrayed by Horus, a series that those of us immersed in the hobby have come to understand as The Horus Heresy. This background “fluff” to the creation of a space marine was, well it was absolutely awesome and had me hooked.

My good friend who got me involved in the hobby would play games against me on weekends and sometimes in the evening. Sometimes I would take the Space Marines, sometimes I would play as the Orks, but my calling came in the form of the following three words: The Aurora Chapter.

I had recently bought what was known as the Ultramarine Codex, since I had initially grabbed the Chaos Codex, but I wanted to utilise what was in the core box set. In looking through the Codex, I found it. The colour scheme that would pave the way for the entirety of my 40k hobby life.

To be honest, back in the 2nd ed. days there wasn’t much variation to each of the space marines found in the Codex Ultramarines, so it came down to colour and how they were painted up. But I really gravitated to the simple colour scheme for The Aurora Chapter; deep emerald green, green highlights, shoulder pad trim colour (in the case of the example in the Codex, black) and bone Imperial Eagle.

Sounds simple right? Well, I had also gotten my hands on a painting guide done by ‘Eavy Metal painter Mike McVey. I knew I wanted to be as good as a painter as he is.

Over the next year or so I just kept on painting and painting. I didn’t fall into the trap known as Warcrack 40k, well not yet, or so I had thought.

I will revisit my hobby beginnings in a future post, one where the forces of The Aurora Chapter found their true foe (well my friend Steve found THE army to combat the strength of The Aurora) and just how The Aurora Chapter evolved to battle this bitter enemy.